‘She was a soft target with big international impact’

Remembering rights activist Sabeen Mahmud on her third death anniversary

KARACHI: She never looked back - no matter how great the danger was. She never flinched while raising her voice against injustice, be it by the state or anyone else.

Her enemies were convinced that they could never win against her so they opted to take the other way out, the cowardly route, and attacked her from behind in the dark. Yet they failed, because Sabeen Mahmud never died. She lives on even today, especially today her third death anniversary.

Sabeen, a prominent social and human rights activist, was shot dead in on April 24, 2014 shortly after hosting an event on Balochistan's missing persons in Defence Housing Authority.

The 40-year-old was the director of T2F, formerly known as The Second Floor, a café and arts space that has been a mainstay of Karachi's activists since it opened in 2007.

Sabeen was shot four times at close range, with bullets going through her shoulder, chest and abdomen. She was pronounced dead on arrival at the National Medical Centre.



She had been on her way from the event, along with her mother, when her car came under attack in Defence Phase-II Extension near the Defence Central Library traffic signal by unidentified gunmen. Her mother was also shot twice and survived. Sabeen had organised the opening of a discussion on 'Unsilencing Balochistan' at T2F, where prominent Baloch rights activists Mama Qadeer, Farzana Majeed and Muhammad Ali Talpur spoke.

But Sabeen was not shot by ordinary street criminals. She was targetted by a group of highly-trained terrorists. A young man named Saad Aziz, also involved in the Safoora carnage, was behind her murder. Aziz and his cohorts were highly-educated and different from other terrorists of their ilk.

"It was not only difficult for me, it was difficult for everyone to trace and arrest them," says Counter-Terrorism Department senior anti-terror officer Raja Omar Khattab who arrested Aziz and his accomplices.

"People thought that we busted the group in just seven days after the Safoora carnage but they were wrong because we took a long time to trace and arrest them."

He said that the group had been involved in several high-profile cases of terrorism and had been operating in the city for a couple of years before they were arrested. "When we started working on the group it was affiliated with alQaeda and when we busted them it was inspired by the Dai'sh," the officer explained.



Sabeen's case was different - until Aziz and his accomplices were arrested, some others were believed to be behind her killing because she spoke up for the rights of missing persons. "She was a soft target with big international impact," Khattab explained. "They chose her as their next target and killed her after proper homework and surveillance."

The officer said that Aziz had already been under the CTD team's surveillance. "He was on our watch list. We saw him multiple times but were unable to understand whether he was a hard core terrorist because of the way he dressed and his persona," the officer explained.

Aziz and his accomplices were tried by a military court and were awarded death sentences. They have, however, filed appeals in the high court.

"They are now approaching the apex court against the death punishment. If the court rejects it, then they will approach the president of Pakistan for mercy and finally, they will be hanged to death if the president also rejects their mercy petitions," explained Khattab.

Qadeer, the Baloch rights activist who founded International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, also remembers Sabeen. "No doubt, there is no one like Sabeen Mahmud," he said. "Everyone is aware of her services for human rights, especially for missing persons."



He said that she was the one in Karachi who helped him and his organisation hold demonstrations for the release of missing persons. "Since she was killed, I have been unable to hold a protest in Karachi as I do not been able to find anyone like her," he explained. "Her death caused a major loss to us."

Sabeen is remembered by her friends for her fearlessness. "Today is her third death anniversary and as her friend I miss her," said Marvi Mazhar, a close friend of Sabeen's. "There is an absence in the city now."